Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Persnickety \Per*snick"et*y\, a.
-
Finicky or fussy; demanding attention to petty details; -- of people. [Colloq.]
Syn: pernickety, pernicketty. [Webster 1913 Suppl. +PJC]
-
snobbish; behaving aloofly. [Colloq.]
Syn: pernickety, pernicketty. [PJC]
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1889, alteration of pernickety (q.v.).
Wiktionary
a. 1 (context US English) fastidious or fussy. 2 obsessive about mundane details, demanding for precision.
WordNet
adj. used colloquially of one who is overly conceited or arrogant; "a snotty little scion of a degenerate family"-Laurent Le Sage; "they're snobs--stuck-up and uppity and persnickety" [syn: bigheaded, snooty, snot-nosed, snotty, stuck-up, too big for one's breeches, uppish]
characterized by excessive precision and attention to trivial details; "a persnickety job"; "a persnickety school teacher" [syn: pernickety]
Usage examples of "persnickety".
She chastised herself for being so persnickety when he did, in fact, have so many redeeming qualities, and attributed it to premarital jitters.
He was a persnickety old fussbudget and, in my opinion, probably Republican.
Frankly, I find it hard to see how a state can be both pro-slavery and antisecession, as persnickety Kentucky seems to be, but the Ancient is willing to take the most egregious abuse from the abolitionist Jacobins among the Republicans rather than offend the peace Democrats who still profess to be loyal.
The point here is to make your animal understand that its upstairs neighbour is exceptionally persnickety about territory.
Alexandria the persnickety Macedonian founders had divided the place up into five arbitrary districtsAlpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon.
Each comes in his own natural turn, delayed by no persnickety neighbors.
Also, Yun Yun could always be depended on to spice up any occasion with a handful of well-timed, persnickety barbs, and Lindsey wondered which innocent bystanders would be stung this evening.
He had previously mentioned to Peter that Watari's persnickety notions were irritating but he ran a tight Base.
And deliberately irritating Elder Ampris with her persnickety manipulations.